As always, facts are scarce, but it seems to be up to £1bn. According to the World Health Organisation, the cost per dose is around $20 (see this blog), and it's believed the Shopper has ordered 90 million of the things. Since only 4 million of us (and I do mean us) have had the jab, that means 86 million are surplus to requirements. Which works out at just over £1bn.

So who's to blame?

Well, the Shopper obviously, for entering into yet another naive overpriced deal with Big Pharma (GlaxoSmithKline alone is reportedly on track for a £1bn swine flu windfall - and no, Tyler does not blame the drugs companies for the Shopper's inability to negotiate professionally).

Then, our Health Commissars for whipping up the scare - especially Chief Scaremaster Sir Liam Donaldson who hysterically announced that 65,000 Brits could die (actual deaths to date 203). As you will recall, the Scaremaster's previous triumphs include Bird Flu, which he predicted could kill up to 750,000 of us (actual deaths nil). And that followed the similarly wildly hyped scares over Sars and vCJD (predicted deaths 136,000; actual deaths 136).

The WHO is a wholly owned subsidiary of the expensive dysfunctional UN. It has an annual budget of $5bn, and is headed by a woman whose educational background is not medicine but home economics. And like most such organisations its funding and continued growth depend on whipping up demand for its services among bureaucrats and politicos in the rich countries. Which is why global pandemics and other health scares come in so handy.

Now, you might think there'd be a limit to the number of times these assorted conflicted commissars could cry wolf before we'd stop paying heed - and more importantly, stop paying their salaries. And maybe there is.

But the biggest such scam the world has ever seen still seems to be going strong. And unlike the global health industry, whose warnings of near-term pandemics can all too soon be proved wrong, the global warming industry has developed a 100 year pitch where we won't be able to tell if they're wrong until long after we're all dead. Genius.

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BOM the book now available

Drawing on six years of blogging government waste, this book shows how we spend far more than we need on our public services. It sets out the facts and explores the underlying issues. Just why does government spend so much and deliver such second rate service? Why do we put up with it? And what are the alternatives?

ABOUT BOM

Despite all the talk of cuts, government still consumes nearly half our national income. Yet many tens of billions of its spending is wasted, with taxpayers made to pick up the tab for a depressing array of overpriced sub-standard services. This is money we can no longer afford, and our National Debt is already at danger level.

If we're to avoid further decades of stagnation and austerity we urgently need to find another way. Exposing and understanding the wastefulness of government is a necessary step in the right direction.